


Salted In

by vaguelybritishme



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 13:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguelybritishme/pseuds/vaguelybritishme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where there's snow, there's salt on the roads. Meg can't leave the batcave, so Castiel provides some entertainment in the form of Meg's favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Salted In

“Oh crap…goddamn  _snow_ ,” Meg lamented, her forehead dejectedly pressed up against a frosty window.

“What’s the matter, Meg?” Castiel asked, approaching her from the other side of the room.

“It’s snowing, Clarence.”

“I know, it’s going to be beautiful outside. Think of the scenery!”

“Think of the salt.”

“The salt?”

“The humans salt the roads when it snows. Helps to melt the ice. Salt everywhere, I’m not taking any chances out there. The forecast the way it is…I didn’t think this would be as much of a problem in Kansas, but it’s gonna get knee-deep out there. I’m trapped in the batcave. For  _ages_.”

“Well, should you need transportation, you need only ask me. I can take you anywhere you’d like to go. No need to brave the salt roads.”

Meg turned away from the wintry landscape out the window to smile at Cas in a manner which he suspected might have been sarcastic—but he wasn’t sure. “Well golly, Clarence, aren’t you just the swellest fella?”

“I don’t understand why you call me Clarence. You know perfectly well by now that my name is Castiel, and yet you rarely use my real name when speaking to me. Why?”

“You’re really telling me you’ve never seen _It’s a Wonderful Life_?”

“Seen…? No, what is that?”

“It’s only the best Christmas movie ever made! Don’t the Hardy Boys teach you anything?”

“Well, Sam and Dean don’t tend to have Christmas celebrations. Dean says they don’t like to make a big deal out of it, usually. This is a film about Christmas, you say?”

“Yeah…have you seen any Christmas movies? Or any movies at all?”

“I enjoy watching television when the Winchesters stay in motels. But they don’t tend to take me to the theatre.”

“Well it’s December. If I have to be a member of your little boy’s club then I’m establishing Christmas as an observed holiday.”

Delightedly surprised, Cas grinned. “I didn’t realize you were so enthusiastic about celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Lucifer and Michael, locked up as they were in their cage in hell, likely heard Meg laugh.

“Jesus Christ, no. Commercialism, yes. Chocolate shaped like a jolly obese gift-giving philanthropist, yes. Movies with Jimmy Stewart, yes every time.”

“Ah. I see. I still don’t understand what chocolate and this Jimmy Stewart have to do with you calling me Clarence.”

“We’ll watch the movie sometime, okay? It’ll make sense then.”

She left him pondering by the window to stretch out on the couch, where a pile of her favorite gossip magazines were laying, just waiting to be read. The Winchesters were working a case in Oregon that week and had given her leave from all that do-gooding they were corrupting her with these days, thank Lucifer. She was just sinking into a long article about some silly starlet’s love life when something caught her eye. Startled, she looked up to see Castiel, perched on the other end of the couch, holding up a DVD bearing the title _It’s a Wonderful Life_.

“Can we watch it?”

“Uh…” She glanced over at the batcave’s little television set. “I don’t think the Men of Letters had a DVD player.”

Cas frowned, then nodded his head and disappeared, leaving the DVD behind. Meg only had time to stand, pick up the DVD, and begin reading the back’s description before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Jesus!” she exclaimed, turning to see Cas behind her, holding a DVD player.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you. Is this what we need?” he asked apologetically, offering her the little grey box.

“Yeah Cas, that’s it. Well, sit down, I’ll get it set up.”

Throughout the duration of the film, Castiel never took his eyes off the screen, tiny and unreliable though it was. He was also insufferable—asking questions all the time, making comments (“I like George Bailey. He reminds me of Dean.” “But why has she become an ‘old maid’ as you say? She seemed to be a very capable woman on her own…” “Clarence is the angel? I understand…however, I’m afraid they got a lot wrong. Angels do not need to earn their wings. Bells indicate nothing of the sort. Perhaps they ought to.”)—but Meg would just shove his arm and tell him to shut up. As they sang Auld Lang Syne in the end, he smiled broadly and finally returned his gaze to his viewing companion.

“That was magnificent! People,” he declared, “are so full of creativity and hope.”

“They’re also a bunch of bastards, like Potter. And they don’t always get beat in the end, you know.”

His smile faded. “Of course I know that. I know that as well as anyone,” he replied defensively.

“…But movies are good that way. They lie to you and make you feel good. That’s okay, too.”

Cas stood up from the couch and walked back to the window. Night had fallen with the snow, yet the world remained bright as the huge, white moon reflected on the equally white snow.

“You like this film very much, then?”

“Yeah…came out when I was a kid.”

“A kid? You mean…human?”

“Uh-huh,” she confirmed, slowly stalking forward to join him at the window. “My dad took me to see it. Not Azazel of course, if that’s where your head is going, I mean the real one.”

Cas nodded. “I see. Do you…remember much about the time before your death?”

“Not everything. Not my name, anyway. Meg was another meat suit I had, the name just kind of stuck. But I remember that movie. And Christmas. And reading magazines. And record players. And that bastard Clive, I’ll never fucking forget him.”

Cas’s forhead wrinkled as he looked at the dreamy demon beside him, who was still staring at the snow with the same calm expression on her face.

“Cl-clive?” he asked hesitantly.

“I don’t want to talk about him right now, but I’m pretty sure I killed the guy. Probably his fault I went to hell, anyway.” She turned to him, smiling and shrugging, as if to say  _whoops!_

“Oh,” he managed to say, slightly perturbed, as ever, when Meg reminded him of how, despite her shifted loyalties, she was still a demon.

It bothered him less all the time.

“Thank you for sharing this film with me. I liked it very much. Even if their conception of my kind was  _grossly_  mistaken.”

“Anytime,” she answered, shaking her head, slightly amused as ever when he reminded her of how, despite his not being a complete self-righteous douchebag 24/7, he was still an angel.

It bothered her less all the time.

“I guess getting salted in isn’t so bad,” she admitted, “as long as I have an easily amused pal like yourself to stay in with.”

“I like spending time with you, too, Meg.” He turned his head to look at her earnestly.

“Whatever…” she replied, rolling her eyes and hoping her cheeks weren’t betraying her feelings of flattery. She looked away from him to survey the freshly white wonderland outside the batcave, not noticing the mental struggle going on in Castiel’s head.

He didn’t know how Dean spoke to women he liked so easily. Or anyone, how did anyone make their feelings properly known to each other on earth?

“You were right, Clarence.”

How did George Bailey do it?

“It’s not half bad out there.”

Here goes nothing.

“…What is it you want, Meg? You want the moon? You can swallow it, it—it’ll dissolve, and…shoot moonbeams out of your hair,” he recited (poorly, he was sure) as he tentatively grazed her blond hair with his finger tips. She looked frightened. Or maybe angry. Or maybe confused. Cas was confused, at least. Maybe this was a bad idea. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—I don’t know what I was thinking, just forget—”

“Why don’t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?” Meg asked, taking a step closer to the briefly terrified angel of the lord.

His eyes widened in surprise; even so, he slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and did as he was told.

After, he held her close and she whispered something in his ear.

_“We’re going to heaven, Clarence.”_


End file.
